Spokane hairdresser says she was attacked by regular client

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Spokane Police Department said Wednesday they are searching for a man who attacked a woman on the South Hill earlier in the day. Police said he left the woman with a broken nose and sliced her hands.

What makes this story unique though, is it was not a stranger that attacked this woman – it was one of her regular customers from her home salon.

Trisha Lutey said the man that attacked her had been coming into her home for the same haircut for about a year. Wednesday though, he came back after his appointment.

“I just let him in,” she said.

He told Lutey he had forgotten something. When Lutey walked back to continue with her other client, that is when things got scary.

Luckily, Lutey’s teenage son was home for Thanksgiving break. He was downstairs sleeping when he heard the commotion and came up to find his mom being attacked.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said, “why is he doing this was mostly going through my mind.”

Lutey said in the year or so, the man never gave her any warning signs. While Lutey said she had no idea why the man would do that, she said she was expecting the worst and is thankful she is still here.

“He was probably going to murder me and sexually assault me,” she said. “if it were a different day and the children were at school, I would have been dead.”

The victim did show police a photo of the man, but KREM 2 is not legally able to show it. Lutey described the man as a tall, skinny and he wears a baseball cap most of the time.

Victim says he had a tire iron in his jacket. "He was probably going to murder me and sexually assault me." pic.twitter.com/Hbe8w9xKFj